Judge Declines To Recuse Herself From Onyeama’s Libel Suit

Keziah Ogbonnaya, a judge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, on Monday, declined a request to recuse herself from a libel suit filed by Geoffrey Onyeama, a former Nigerian foreign affairs minister.

Mr Onyeama had sued a career ambassador in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lillian Onoh, who is also a sister to his former wife, for libel, alleging that she defamed him in a series of memos she sent to him while he was the minister.

But, Ms Onoh alleged bias against Ms Ogbonnaya, urging her to stop adjudicating on the suit.

At the resumed hearing on Monday, Ms Onoh’s lawyer, Richard Aneke, asked Ms Ogbonnaya to recuse herself from the case based on his client’s instruction.

Mr Aneke drew Ms Ogbonnaya’s attention to a pending petition before the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, seeking a reassignment of the case to another judge.

Ms Onoh also petitioned the National Judicial Council, asking it to discipline Ms Ogbonnaya for being overtly partial in her handling of the suit.

Recall Ms Onoh’s grouse with the judge, and the relationship between Ms Ogbonnaya and Mr Onyeama.

Delivering a bench ruling on Monday, Ms Ogbonnaya said she was assigned the suit by the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Hussein Baba-Yusuf.

The defendant had accused Mr Onyeama of influencing the transfer of the case from Eleojo Enenche to Ms Ogbonnaya, to get a favourable decision.

“No judge assigns cases himself, it is the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court that assigns cases. It is the same Chief Judge that tells a judge to stop hearing a particular case.

“Unless and until the Chief Judge sends a copy of the petition to me for response, this case will go on.

“Since the Chief Judge has not ordered for the reassignment of this case, this matter shall continue in this court. That is the order of this court,” Ms Ogbonnaya explained.

Acknowledging the presence of journalists at the proceedings, the judge advised Mr Aneke and “emissaries in the courtroom” to convey the court’s order to Ms Onoh.

“The emissaries take this message to her that this court has ordered that this matter shall go on and this judge will not recuse herself. She did not assign the case to me. This matter shall continue to go,” Ms Ogbonnaya said.

Mr Onyeama, who served in former President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime for nearly eight years, attended Monday’s proceedings.

His lawyer, Agada Elachi, expressed surprise at Ms Onoh’s allegation of bias against the judge.

“I am shocked to hear this from the defence lawyer. It is within counsel’s right to say what he has said, but the purported petition in its entirety is based on hearsay,” Mr Elachi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said.

He said the defendant had never witnessed the judge conduct proceedings in the case.

“She has never had any opportunity of witnessing my lord conduct proceedings to show that this court is biased.”

Mr Elachi argued that there was no legal basis for Ms Ogbonnaya to recuse herself from continuing to hear the case.

He further contended that Ms Onoh’s petition was “a ploy to frustrate the hearing of this matter.”

While acknowledging that it was within the Chief Judge’s purview to consider the petition, Mr Elachi contended that “there is no law that requires my lord to stop proceedings in this matter.

“We urge the court to continue with the proceedings pending when the truth of this petition will be unravelled,” Mr Elachi said.

Monday’s hearing was earlier fixed for the adoption of final written addresses, signalling the end of the suit before judgment is handed down. However, the defence lawyer informed the court of pending requests concerning the extension of time to file Ms Onoh’s defence statement out of time and to allow her to testify before the judge via Zoom.

Thereafter, Mr Aneke said he could no longer continue with the case because of Ms Ogbonnaya’s refusal to withdraw from the matter.

Subsequently, the judge asked Mr Aneke if he was abandoning his client’s pending applications, which he said no.

“I have my client’s instruction not to proceed with the case, should my lord refuse to recuse herself from the matter. Regarding the motions, I am not abandoning my motions,” Mr Aneke said.

In his response to the issue, Mr Elachi asked the court to dismiss the applications on account of Mr Aneke’s intention to pull out of the case.

In another short ruling, Ms Ogbonnaya said the “pending motions are deemed to have been moved” by Mr Aneke despite his fierce objection to the judge’s continued handling of the case.

“It is the view of this court that since the motions are before the court, the court deems them moved by the 1st defendant’s counsel,” the judge said.

The judge then rejected Mr Aneke’s request for an adjournment to enable him to confer with Ms Onoh on the outcome of the application requesting the judge to withdraw from the case.

Mr Elachi had sought a N50,000 fine against Mr Aneke for seeking an adjournment.

He said he would only agree to an adjournment if the judge adjourned until Thursday, 14 December, after which Ms Ogbonnaya reversed herself, and adjourned the case.